richard's our senior united nations correspondent. richard, i would imagine since abbas is speaking now, the vote has not taken place. >> the vote's not taken place. there will be some more speeches. this is the u.n. and then the vote will occur and widely expected the palestinians get this upgraded enhanced title at the u.n. bringing them closer to full statehood, the word state init, but they don't have all the rights of being a state. it's a bit of a step down to what the president abbas who continues to speak now what he wanted last year, but u.s. opposition stopped that in the security council. so it's a big day, don. >> you're right, richard. elise, why is the united states against palestine becoming a nonmember observer state? >> don, because they feel that it's really not going to get the palestinians what they want, which is an actual state. this is as richard has been saying a largely symbolic vote. it doesn't do anything for palestinian borders, for palestinian sovereignty. all of the things that the u.s. says needs to be d